None.
Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the arts of web browser graphical user interface technology and web browser link history management. In particular, this invention relates to methods and systems for web browsers which allow the user to control the visual display of certain types of link and document retrieval operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet and the World Wide Web have become critical, integral parts of commercial operations, personal lives, and the education process. At the heart of the Internet content is Internet browser technology and Internet server technology. An Internet server contains content which is available to systems and browsers which have Internet connectivity. Web browser or xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d computers may request documents from web addresses, to which appropriate web servers respond by transmitting one or more web documents, image or graphics files, forms, audio clips, etc. The most common protocol for transmission of web documents and contents from servers to browsers is Hyper Text Transmission Protocol (xe2x80x9cHTTPxe2x80x9d).
FIG. 1 shows the fundamental client-server arrangement of Internet and intranet communications. A client browser computer (1) is provided with Internet access (2) to the World Wide Web (3) through common means such as a dial-up telephone line and modem, cable modem, or local area network (xe2x80x9cLANxe2x80x9d). The web browser computer (1) is also provided with appropriate web browsing software, such as Netscape""s Navigator or Microsoft""s Explorer. A web server computer (5) is likewise provided with Internet access (4) to the World Wide Web (3) using similar means, or higher-bandwidth means such as T1 and T3 data lines, and a web server suite of software. Alternatively, client and servers may be interconnected via an Intranet (6), such as a corporate LAN. These arrangements are well known within the art.
The most common type of Internet content or document is Hyper Text Markup Language (xe2x80x9cHTMLxe2x80x9d) documents, but other formats are equally well known in the art such as Adobe Portable Document Format (xe2x80x9cPDFxe2x80x9d). HTML, PDF and other web documents provide xe2x80x9chyperlinksxe2x80x9d within the document, which allow a user to select another document or web site to view. Hyperlinks are specially marked text or areas in the document which when selected by the user commands the browser software to retrieve or fetch the indicated document. For example, the text
 less than A HREF=xe2x80x9chttp://www.patents.ibm.comxe2x80x9d greater than VIEW PATENTS less than /A greater than 
when embedded into an HTML document will produce a specially marked or highlighted string of text in the web browser window which simply reads xe2x80x9cVIEW PATENTSxe2x80x9d. Most commonly, this text will appear in underlined blue text, but the HTML document may specify alternate display characteristics for hyperlinks, as well as the web browser may have options for the display of hyperlinks. If the web browser user selects the hyperlink, such as clicking on the hyperlink using a mouse, the web browser will request the base document from web address www.patents.ibm.com using HTTP commands. The appropriate server for this web address will respond to the request by transmitting a web document, such as index.htm, to the requesting web browser.
Ordinarily, when the user selects a plain hyperlink, the current page being displayed in the web broswer""s graphical user interface (xe2x80x9cGUIxe2x80x9d) window disappears and the newly received page is displayed. If the parent page is an index, for example the IBM web site www.patents.ibm.com, and the user wishes to visit each descending link (e.g. read the document with tips on how to use the site), then the parent or index page disappears and the new page is displayed (such as the help page). The user must click the browser""s xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d button to return to displaying the parent page if desired.
FIG. 2 shows an example partial xe2x80x9csite mapxe2x80x9d for a typical web site. A base document (21), or xe2x80x9chome pagexe2x80x9d, is transmitted by the hosting web server to a requesting web browser using HTTP whenever a web browser xe2x80x9cpointsxe2x80x9d to a plain web address without a file specification, such as www.corp.com. In FIG. 2, an example of a base HTML document xe2x80x9cindex.htmxe2x80x9d includes four hyperlinks. If the user selects or clicks on the displayed link for xe2x80x9chelpxe2x80x9d, the file xe2x80x9chelp.htmxe2x80x9d is transmitted by the web server to the browser. In the web browser GUI window, the display of xe2x80x9cindex.htmxe2x80x9d (21) is replaced with a display of xe2x80x9chelp.htmxe2x80x9d (22). The user can further select a hyperlink in xe2x80x9chelp.htmxe2x80x9d (22), such as xe2x80x9cProduct Axe2x80x9d, which will cause the web browser to transmit the file xe2x80x9chelpA.htmxe2x80x9d (23). This can continue many layers deep, and does not have to be organized as a simple tree structure, as shown, because hyperlinks can refer to files on other web addresses, to other parent files, etc.
However, web browser software maintains a xe2x80x9chistoryxe2x80x9d of visited files assuming a tree-like structure. The xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d button shows the previous page, and the xe2x80x9cforwardxe2x80x9d button shows the next page (if the xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d button has been used). Sometimes, a user may descend multiple layers into a web site in such a way that the xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d button must be pressed many times to return to this xe2x80x9cmainxe2x80x9d or top level page.
Coding of the HTML pages can ease this burden to some degree by using xe2x80x9cframesxe2x80x9d. In frames-based HTML pages, the user""s web browser GUT window is split into multiple xe2x80x9cpanesxe2x80x9d, and the code in the HTML of the page can control presentation of the information in each frame. Typically, a top-level list of hyperlinks or navigation bar is presented in one pane, while selected documents are updated in another pane. FIG. 3 shows an example of a frames-based display. On a portion (30) of a the user""s browser computer screen, a web browser (31), such as Netscape""s Navigator, is running in its own window. The browser is currently pointed (34) at the top or home page of the example web site. The web page xe2x80x9cindex.htmxe2x80x9d is configured to split the GUI display into three frames. The upper frame (32) is being used to display a general banner, the left frame (33) is being used to display a list of hyperlinks from the top page (or navigation bar), and the right-bottom frame (35) is displaying the contents of the currently selected page. If the user were to select the xe2x80x9chelpxe2x80x9d hyperlink in the left frame (33), the display might proceed to appear as shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, the web browser (31) is now pointed (34) at the file xe2x80x9chelp.htmxe2x80x9d, and the contents of that file are displayed in the bottom-right frame or pane (35). Two hyperlinks (40 and 41) are shown in the bottom-right frame, with the top-level hyperlinks of index.htm still available in the left frame (33). This illustrates how the HTML page can control which information is replaced and which remains visible when a hyperlink is selected. However, frames are not a generalized solution, and must be included in the HTML source. This requires the web page and site designer to anticipate or predict the most likely path a user will traverse the pages in the site, and of course cannot cover all possibilities available.
Still other HTML coding functions allow some web pages which have hyperlinks to launch or xe2x80x9cspawnxe2x80x9d a new web browser instance in a new window. Using this functionality, if a user selects a certain hyperlink in the currently displayed page, an entirely new instance of the web browser is initiated in its own independent GUI window. Again, the web page designer must predict or anticipate which links a user would desire to spawn new window and which links the user may want to simply replace the current display. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of such a multiple-window scheme. In such a case, when a user selects one of the hyperlinks in the base page in the first browser window (31), a new instance of the browser is spawned in a new window (31xe2x80x2) and the information for the selected page is displayed in the new window (31xe2x80x2). The new instance of the web browser is then completely independent of the first instance of the browser, and can be pointed to any web site or file as desired. Again, though, the web document designer must decide at the time of designing the web document which hyperlinks will spawn new browser windows and which will not. Additionally, this type of window spawning can be irritating to some web browser users, as the xe2x80x9cbackxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cforwardxe2x80x9d buttons in the new instances of the browsers do not inherit the history of the parent instance and do not work as expected by the user. So, if several instances of the browser are running concurrently as a result of several link selections, it may become confusing to the user which browser is the original browser with all of the history.
The conventional addressing scheme of the Internet includes several xe2x80x9clabelsxe2x80x9d separated by xe2x80x9cdotsxe2x80x9d to create a domain name, as follows:
subdomn . . . subdom2. subdom1.host.domsub dir1 subdir2 . . . subdirn
where: subdom=subdomain,
host=host name,
dom=top level domain
subdir=subdirectory
The Internet addressing scheme is tree-like, with subdomains and host names descending from the top level domains. Top level domains are the main divisions of the Internet addressing scheme, such as xe2x80x9ccomxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cgovxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ceduxe2x80x9d. Top level domains also include the extension for foreign countries, such as xe2x80x9cco.ukxe2x80x9d for the United Kingdom, or xe2x80x9cco.jpxe2x80x9d for Japan. Host names are the highest level xe2x80x9clabelxe2x80x9d which can be registered to a particular web server operator, such as xe2x80x9cibmxe2x80x9d. Subdomains are addressing divisions within host names which are administered by the host name owner, such as xe2x80x9cpatents.ibm.comxe2x80x9d. Subdirectories are file structures within a particular server which serves a host name address, such as xe2x80x9cibm.com tech_suportxe2x80x9d. These addressing schemes are well-known within the art.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an alternative method for selecting and viewing web documents from hyperlinks in other web documents. This method and system must allow the web browser user to select the type of advancement to the selected document, such as frames, spawning new windows, or traditional single window operation. Further, there is a need in the art for this method and system to allow some criteria to be specified to select between optional handling and advancement schemes based on changes in the addresses selected which may indicated movement from web site to web site. Additionally, this new method and system should be compatible with existing web document standards, such as HTML, browser packages and web server interfaces.